There are a variety of social networks out there that we can use as teachers to expand our learning through a PLN, connect with students and parents, and communicate with colleagues. The three major ones are Twitter, Google Plus, and Facebook. They all have different features, functions, and uses.

I use Twitter and Google Plus for real time updates from websites and news and to connect with educators across the globe in my Personal Learning Network to share resources and communicate. I use Facebook to connect with friends and family and keep in touch with former students. You can read more about how and why I use these different services here.

Info.it has a great infographic comparing some of the major features of each of these, from relationships, to sharing, to content.

Google+ - more reasons it's great for educators

Google+ and Google+ Pages - great for educators and schools

Twitter, Facebook, RSS feeds, Email, Google+ - why/when I use each one

Infographic comparing Facebook and Google+ security

 

Storify is a service that allows you to create a story or collect resources from social media sources. Using the Storify editor you can search social media networks to gather elements, including status updates, photos, or videos, to create a story. You can even add narrative to it. You can then embed and share your story across the web.

This is a great way to gather information from across the web and turn it into a cohesive story. Teachers could use it for lessons and students could use it to create reports and projects on different topics.

Kloosion is a soon-to-be-launched beta service that promises "a secure and private way to share and communicate". There isn't much more than that available yet, but you can sign up to be notified when the beta is available at their site.

The site is supposedly going to allow you to work, study, and communicate with others with a simple, secure tool.

It sounds like it might be a mini-social network or the like with more security and privacy than most of the current ones.

As soon as it launches, I'll try it out and share more information.

Diipo is a new free service (in beta) that describes itself as "Education 2.0 Social Network for your Class". Diipo allows the teacher to communicate with their students and vice versa and also allows the teacher to connect to other educators and connect classes to each other. It is easy to use and the user-interface (UI) is similar to Facebook and Twitter.

Some of the features include:

• collaborative workspaces for students to work with each other and get help from the teacher
• direct messaging 
• student blogs and micro-blogging
• upload and share files
• student project notebooks
• class roster
• an educator community

There are a variety of tools that I use to stay informed and connected online. They each have their own benefits and shortcomings and I have different reasons for using each one.



Twitter - Twitter is an excellent resource for educators. I connect with other educators from around the world and share resources and discuss educational topics. I also get breaking news, updates from companies I like, and more. I don't use it as a purely social entity though. It is more for my professional use. The one problem with Twitter is that you can easily miss things as your feed moves along. You can search for users and topics, but it is very easy to miss things. It's strength is instant communication and connecting with people around the world. (however, the 140 character limit can make it challenging sometimes).

Facebook - I use Facebook to connect with friends and keep up with social events. I do follow a couple of business and education pages, but my main use is for keeping with with my friends. There are plenty of educational uses for it, but I haven't gone to far with that yet.


Email -  email is a great method of communicating with people. You can write any length, attach files, and the responses don't disappear in a feed of messages like on Twitter. I have an email account for business use (like banks, etc), my school email account, and a gmail account for Google accounts and communicating. I do not believe that email is dead, or even dying, like many people have suggested.


RSS Feeds - I've read different articles about how RSS feeds are dying too. I don't believe that. I use RSS feeds to subscribe to web sites to get notified when there is a new article. The feed doesn't disappear into a long line of messages like on Twitter. It will be there until I read it or delete it. I can also favorite an article to read later, or even share them with others. It is an extremely useful tool.


Each of these tools is useful in different ways and has different reasons I use them. I don't think that any one could replace the other because they are so different.

How do you use each one?